


So Much For Pretending

by Chelsea Frew (chelseafrew)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-26
Updated: 2013-12-26
Packaged: 2018-01-06 04:27:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1102398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelseafrew/pseuds/Chelsea%20Frew
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Management wants Harry to go to Kendall Jenner's hotel. Harry would like to go someplace else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So Much For Pretending

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inmyrosegarden](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inmyrosegarden/gifts).



> It was a lot of fun playing with your prompt. I hope you like the result of my play. Thanks to Cori--who I dragged down into this fandom with me *g*--for the help with plotting and with the beta reading. Title stolen from the song of the same name sung by Bryan White. Happy holidays!!

"Shit!" Harry resisted the urge to throw his phone against the airport wall. He should have known it was a mistake to open his text messages while they waited in line for customs, and yet, he had done just that.

"What?" Louis said from right behind him.

Harry sighed. "Management," he replied succinctly.

Louis made a noise of sympathy. "What now?"

Harry picked up his bag and moved forward in line before answering. "They want me to go to Kendall's hotel."

"She's in town?" Louis sounded surprised.

"Apparently."

"Well, I guess that makes sense," Louis said. "She is here to see you, right?"

"Now," Harry clarified. "They want me to go now." He moved up again. He was finally next in line to see the customs agent.

"But it's…," he paused to look down at his own phone, "…one in the morning."

"You noticed that, too?" Harry turned around to smirk in Louis' direction.

Louis shrugged. "I guess you gotta do what you gotta do."

Harry wanted to hit him. He did not need trite statements thrown at him at this juncture. But the customs agent called him forward just then, saving Louis from an evening with a frozen bag of peas.

Once all the boys were done with customs, they congregated in a small waiting room until their respective cars were there. Liam and Zayn stood in one corner of the room, giggling over something on Zayn's phone. Niall looked like he was busy losing at Candy Crush some more, while Louis was clearly scrolling through his Twitter feed. 

Harry pulled Paul to the side to ask, "Is it really necessary for me to go to Kendall's hotel now? It's almost half-one in the morning."

Paul gave him a sympathetic look, but nodded. "They already have some paps headed over there to get you going into the hotel."

Harry sighed in frustration. "It's all so ridiculous."

Paul patted Harry on the shoulder. "I know, but it's what they want."

Liam and Niall were summoned to their cars just then, and they called their goodbyes out, saying they would see everyone at Wembley the next day.

Zayn was sent for next, and he pocketed his phone and waved goodbye to the room at large before heading out.

That left just Louis, Harry, Alberto, and Paul. Alberto would go with Louis to make sure he got home okay, and Paul would see Harry to the hotel.

Louis cleared his throat. "So, Harry, excited about performing on the _X-Factor_ final tomorrow?"

Harry could not help but squint at Louis as if he'd suddenly grown another head. Really? That was the best conversation starter he could come up with? Harry shook his head and looked sideways at Louis to answer, "Yes, Louis, I am excited about performing on the _X-Factor_ final tomorrow. Are you?"

Louis nodded. "Should be a good time."

"Yeah," Harry agreed slowly, still not entirely sure why Louis had broached this topic.

"Then, finally, we get a break. I can't wait to be able to relax," Louis over-enthused.

Did Louis think Harry had forgotten their schedule? "Relaxing will be good," he added inanely.

Thankfully, this was the moment that Harry's driver called to Paul, telling him he was ready.

"Have a nice visit with Kendall," Louis wished him as Harry shouldered his bag.

"Thanks." Harry was also thankful to be leaving what felt like nothing less than the Twilight Zone. He wasted no time in following Paul from the room and out into the loading zone where his car was waiting to take him to wherever it was Kendall was staying.

Harry passed the time in the car trying to analyze why, exactly, he had just had the most boring conversation he'd ever had with Louis. They had been continuing to tone things down, just as they had been doing for the last he'd-lost-count-of-how-many months, but this last week had been different. No, it had been great. Their rapport in Milan, particularly, had seemed especially strong. Harry had even been able to pretend that Louis might maybe feel the way Harry himself did, and he hadn't been able to do that for a long time.

But tonight Louis just wants to talk about their performance the next night? What the hell?

Paul interrupted his reverie to announce, "We're almost there."

 _Super_ , Harry thought. And the more he thought about it, the less he wanted to fake spending time with Kendall and the more he wanted to go find out just what Louis' deal was. He had formulated a plan by the time the car stopped just down the street from the hotel.

"I'm not staying," Harry proclaimed.

"Excuse me?" Paul said, surprised.

"I'll go in, but I want you to meet me behind the back," Harry explained plainly. "I'm not staying."

"Harry…."

Harry could tell that Paul was working himself up to an argument, but Harry shook his head. In the firmest tone he could muster at two-something in the morning he repeated, "I'm not staying."

Paul sighed. "Okay. Fine. We'll meet you in the back."

"Thank you." Harry reached into his bag and pulled out the first thing he got his hand on. It was a blue head scarf. Perfect. He folded it up to carry with him. Let the paps and the fans figure out that one. He opened the car door. "See you in just a few."

Without waiting for Paul to produce a protest, Harry bolted from the car and walked purposefully first toward, then into the hotel. Just as planned, there were a few members of the prestigious paparazzi present to snap photos of his every move. No doubt everyone's Google alerts in the morning would feature news about him spending the night with Kendall. Fan-fucking-tastic.

As soon as he entered the lobby, he asked the concierge how to get to the back of the building, hoping that he was one to keep secrets, not tell them. The concierge pointed him in the right direction, and Harry put his head down and made his way straight out the back, where his driver and Paul were waiting, just as instructed.

After clambering back into the car, he instructed, "I want to go to Louis'."

Paul did a literal double-take. "I'm sorry. Louis'?"

"Louis'," Harry confirmed, stuffing his scarf back into his bag.

"It's two-thirty a.m.," Paul pointed out.

"I know," Harry assured him.

"You're sure? Louis'? Paul checked.

"Yes." Harry pulled out his phone to check for text messages and e-mail during the drive.

It was closing in on half-three in the morning when Harry's driver pulled up to the front of Louis' house. Harry yawned and stretched before collecting up his coat and his bag.

"You want us to wait?" Paul inquired.

Harry shook his head. "Nope. I'm good."

"Okay. See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow." Harry opened the door and climbed out of the car. He pulled on his coat against the chill in the air, then hoisted his bag onto his shoulders and walked straight to the front door. With a deep breath, he rang the bell and waited. And waited. He rang the bell again. This time he smiled when he heard footsteps stumbling toward the door.

Louis opened the door, mouth already open to yell at whatever individual had decided to disturb him at this ungodly hour. His mouth froze when his gaze lit upon Harry. It only took him a second to recover and ask in a tone that was more puzzled than angry, "Harry, what the hell?" 

"Funny. That's exactly what I came to ask you," Harry returned brightly. "Can I come in?"

Louis backed up and gestured for Harry to come in, closing the door behind him. He had had time to change into some plaid pajama bottoms and a plain white t-shirt, but it didn't seem like Harry had woken him up.

Harry set his bag down just inside the entry way. Then he turned to Louis and simply said, "I'm done."

Louis looked him with complete and utter confusion on his face. Then he inquired, "Aren't you supposed to be with Kendall?"

"I believe I am," Harry answered evenly.

"Instead you're…here?" Louis did not sound any less confused.

"Obviously."

Louis raised his eyebrows, adding to his overall air of curiosity. "May I ask why?"

"I told you. I'm done," Harry repeated.

"Done with what?"

"Why did you ask me about whether or not I was excited about _X-Factor_?"

It was apparent that Louis considered this a total non-sequitor, but Harry had a point. He waited patiently and was rewarded when Louis carefully said, "Because I wanted to know whether or not you were excited about the _X-Factor_ final."

Harry sighed heavily. "Is that really what we've come to? Asking if we're excited about a performance we could do in our sleep?"

Louis shrugged. "I don't know."

That feeling he'd had at the airport--the one that made him want to hit Louis--came back with a vengeance. "Do you even remember how close we were? I mean, before the Larry Stylinson stuff got out of control."

Louis nodded. "Of course I do. I just thought we decided to tone things down. Didn't we?"

Harry could feel the flames of rage begin in his neck and quickly work their way up to his cheeks. "No. 'We' didn't. You did."

"Excuse me?" Louis clearly took offence at this reading of how things had gone down. It was the first time during this conversation that Louis began to show frustration at Harry. "Don't tell me you haven't been a willing participant."

Harry, however, was even more frustrated than Louis. "I thought I had no choice, so I participated. But I was never willing. And I'm done."

Louis brought his hand up and squeezed the bridge of his nose. "You keep saying that. It's past half-three, Harry. Can you just say what it is you mean?"

Harry pulled in a deep breath, then went for broke. "I'm done pretending I'm not crazy in love with you."

Louis' mouth literally dropped open, as if he'd been rendered completely speechless.

Harry decided to use the moment to elaborate. "I think I fell in love with you the minute I saw you there in the toilets at boot camp. You were the best person I'd ever met. I was so excited when we were put in the band together. We seemed to click right away, but I didn't know how to tell you how I felt. I was working my way up to it when the Larry Stylinson thing happened. Then you backed off and Eleanor came into the picture."

"You should have said something," Louis whispered.

"What? And risked being blown off? Rejected?" Harry scoffed. "You seemed okay with the way things were, and I was just happy still being in your orbit."

"So what changed? Why now?" Louis wondered aloud.

"You seemed different last week, especially in Milan. You sat next to me at some of the interviews, you looked at me--really looked at me--more than usual. I thought maybe you felt…." He sighed. "No, that's not right. I hoped you were…. Oh, I don't know what I was thinking." This was not quite going the way Harry had envisioned.

He was just about to ask Louis to forget he'd said anything when Louis said, "I am."

It was Harry's turn to be confused. "You are what?"

Louis smiled. "Crazy in love with you, too."

All Harry could get out was, "But…."

"I think I fell for you the day we met, too," Louis confessed. "You weren't like anyone I'd ever met. You seemed to just get me. And it freaked me out. I didn't know if you felt the same way, and I was scared that if I told you and you didn't, you wouldn't want to be friends anymore. So I didn't say anything. Then the Larry Stylinson thing started up and management made it pretty clear that that wasn't going to fly, so when they introduced Eleanor, I went with it, figuring I had no choice."

Harry didn't know what to say, so instead, he did the one thing he'd been wanting to do ever since that day in the toilets when he'd been graced with Louis' presence. He reached out to put one hand on each side of Louis' face and pulled him in for a kiss.

The kiss started out chaste, but pretty quickly turned dirty. Harry's tongue demanded a meeting with Louis' at just about the same time as Louis pushed Harry backwards until his back hit the front door. They explored each other's mouths fervently until Harry thought he would pass out from lack of breath. It was the best he'd felt ever.

A clock somewhere in the house chimed four times, and the boys reluctantly parted.

Harry grinned and reached behind himself for the door handle. "So, should I go now?" he asked cheekily.

Louis put his hand over Harry's and pressed hard, preventing him from twisting the handle. "Don't you dare. We've got so much time to make up."

Harry leaned forward and kissed Louis one more time. "Can't wait to get started." 

When Louis loosened his grip on his hand, Harry reached for his bag, but Louis shook his head. "You won't need anything from that for quite a while. Leave it. I want you in my bed immediately. Right now. This minute."

"So demanding," Harry noted with a grin.

Louis grinned right back at him. "You have no idea."

Harry took the steps two at a time. He'd waited almost three and a half years for this moment. He wasn't waiting anymore.

End (24 December 2013)


End file.
